Bide
by Jerod2447
Summary: Things are grim, everyone is involved in the fight for their lives. Will they perish? Or will they succeed? And if they succeed, what will it cost? Meanwhile, there are some new players in town that will surely have some affect, for better or worse. This is the sequel to Alter, and the third story in my main series of stories, hope you enjoy.
1. Prologue: Introducing A Whole New World

_Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote, "And out of the darkness came the hands that reach thro' nature, moulding men."_

* * *

Prologue, Introducing A Whole New World

* * *

"Sir! We're getting close!" A Miner exclaimed as they dug and drilled through the hard rock and dirt. "The readings on the scanner are getting higher and there's a slight change in the dirt... it's hard to explain, the texture is just... different."

The Commander eyed the image before him as he stood in the middle of a mobile command center. Behind him, his CO, a Colonel, and a General, the Colonel's CO. In front of them all, a 3D display of the underground depicted what looked to be a large structure of some kind.

Its geometry and size indicated it wasn't constructed by his kind and he rubbed his fur-covered chin in puzzlement. Their scans, for whatever reason, couldn't penetrate the walls of said structure. It simply was displayed as an empty, black shape surrounded by rock and dirt.

To the right in the display, he could see the tunnel being dug and the lightly-distorted outlines of the miners working their way towards the structure. Their outlines were somewhat distorted due to their PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) they wore. The Commander thought it smart for them to wear the suits as the construction emitted a radiation-like energy. Obviously they couldn't tell what was giving off the strange radiation, nor could they determine what the energy actually was.

All three of the high-ranks could feel the gnawing of intrigue, curiosity, and the added pressure to deliver some kind of results growing in their guts.

It was initially discovered during reconstruction efforts after a long and brutal world war. It had ravaged most of the planet; killing millions and leaving most of the countries on the supercontinent torn, burned, and razed. While demolishing a large, ruined building, the sensors on the demolition equipment began to give readings their operators had never seen before.

How or why this energy hadn't been detected long before was one of the mysteries this excavation hoped to explain.

Sipping on his personal flask, the Commander felt the familiar burn of the strong whiskey slide down his throat. He took barely a half-sip, last thing he wanted was to be wasted on such an important discovery. No, he wanted just enough to calm his shaky nerves. _I survive that hell of a war... that damn war... and I'm shaking because of this?_ He thought, he didn't consider that his shaking nerves came from fear so much as it was excitement. _This is just the thing we need, something to unify us, now more than ever._

The Commander, Liam "Edge" Thompson, listened as the Miner came through again. They were right up against one of the structure's walls. "Never seen anything like this commander, take a look." In place of the map, a live, helmet-cam, video feed appeared on the display.

A smooth, simmering, dark-blue/purple wall was shown via the feed. It was unlike any material they had seen before.

Edge watched as the Miner, with the helmet-cam, reached out and touched the wall. "It feels like smooth stone, like a statue or something..." He tensed a bit as he started to push on it, to test the wall. The Miner yelled as there was a brief spark of light and he seemed to fall/phase through the wall. Edge, and the Miner's compatriots called out as the feed, surprisingly, was still up. It was facing the ground, but the signal was still transmitting the video.

Edge, along with everyone else in the center, held their breaths as they waited to see if the Miner was injured or worse.

"Are you okay Desmond?" Edge asked with a lightly-tense tone.

A stunned groan rang out and the video began to move. "Uggh... yeah... I think so..." The Miner's hand raised to his face-mask and rubbed it. "Just didn't expect that Commander and took a decent fall..." He yelped as one of his fellow miners landed on top of him. "Hello Brandon..." he responded with a deadpanned manner.

Brandon grunted and rolled off of him, "Had to make sure you were fine."

Both miners stood up and looked around, they were greeted by a wall of darkness. Each took out a pair of glow-sticks, activated them, and tossed one into the dark while they each held the other in their hands.

"Orders sir?" the Miner asked, lightly unnerved due to the alien darkness around them.

"Hold position, I'll bring in a team." Edge looked up at the Colonel, who gave an affirmative nod. "I'll be there in a few."

"Copy that, hurry sir, this place is making my fur stand on end..."

"Will do, out." Edge responded before he headed out to gear up in his PPE and armed himself with an energy pistol as he joined up with his unit.

His exploratory unit consisted of six specialists. All of whom were the best at what they did.

Among them, was his best friend, Lummy, who was giving his signature energetic/mischievous smile. "This little dig just got very interesting eh?" The Lieutenant was renowned for his close-quarters combat ability, and his seemingly endless supply of energy. His rust-colored fur shimmered slightly from the few lights and his lack of tail (which he lost in combat) made him stand out from his teammates.

"Yep, very much so everyone ready?" Edge barked, though it was more of a command than a question by the tone, obviously he was eager to explore. This being the first time that Edge was leading anything that wasn't involved in combat. A feeling of pride, a feeling of excitement and the unknown filled his being as he led the crew out of the command center and down into the tunnels. A motorized platform lowered them down the diagonal shaft, towards their destination.

"Never thought I'd be on an op with you that wasn't war-related Commander," a sniper/scout, Nathan Rogue (code-named Hawkeye) commented as they traveled down. He had black fur with some white markings on his face. He was of average height though was slightly more muscular due to some physical enhancements from his past.

Hawkeye shared those physical enhancements with his sister, Mary. She was also among them and, while her fur was naturally black, she had it dyed a brilliant crimson (except for the longer fur on her head that remained black) and retained the white markings on her face. Despite her brightly-colored fur (and somewhat hot-headed attitude) she was an excellent infiltrator/spy/assassin/scout. "Yes, this will be a nice change-of-pace," she smirked slightly, her upper-class accent setting her apart from the more rough, militaristic manners of her teammates.

"Tell me about it," Edge replied and did a quick, final check to make sure his equipment was fine. "Jade, can you hear me?" He said into his comm.

"Yes, I copy you commander," His adopted sister replied. "Be careful, I've run an analysis on what the miners have found, and this kind of structure doesn't match anything made by our kind. No other species, nor country either publicly or secretly has this kind of technology, and yes, I would know if anyone had something like this." She commented with a wry, prideful tone; obviously implying her wealth of contacts and information-gathering skills as an intelligence agent. "I'll be down in a second."

"Thanks sis, we all know you're the best." He replied with an equally-sarcastic manner before looking over at Cassie, the lead scientist on the expedition. "What do you say?"

Cassie shrugged as she held onto a briefcase with her field equipment, "Too early to say anything, need to look for myself. Given what Jade has reported, we could be looking at something extra-galactic." She said the last part with an almost giddy manner.

"Must be shaking in your suit eh?" Lummy remarked with a grin as the elevator landed.

"You have no idea lieutenant, this could be the discovery of the century! Hell, of the millennium!"

"Let's see exactly what we're dealing with before we get too excited," Edge reminded them as they loaded onto the transport sled and set off down the tunnel. "Huey, you have everything you need?"

The medic of the team nodded, the light shimmered against his black fur and his crimson eyes bounced around a bit as he took stock of all that was in his pack. "Mmmhmm, yes, yes, and yes... oh yes, good." He looked up at Edge, "Final check is good, I'm set sir."

"Good, now let's see what we've found." He said as they loaded up on the sled/transport that led down the tunnel. The young operator piloting it gave the thumbs up as they took off.

Five minutes later, and they arrived at the site. Even with what little light there was, the mysterious and alien nature of the structure was apparent. The dark purple/black wall shimmered slightly in the dark, drawing the attention of the team.

Cassie opened her case and took out laser-cutting tool, to try and get a sample of the wall. She placed it on the structure and activated it. She yelped in surprise as the device exploded to bits and she looked at the wall dumb-founded, "That's... not supposed to happen..." Was all she could say for a moment as she tried to figure out what had just occurred.

Opening her case, she quickly began to read through the manual. "Huh... the only thing that could have been, was the laser being reflected directly back into the emitter... but, that makes no sense, this... material, doesn't seem to reflect any light..." Looking at the wall, she slowly placed her hand on the wall, the surface felt cold and smooth like glass as she pressed in on it. The Scientist gave a light grunt as her hand seemed to phase through the wall and she pulled back, looking at her hand. It didn't tingle or look odd or anything as she moved her fingers.

"That's a heck of a thing isn't it?" Jade commented with a curious look as she stood next to Cassie, her best friend.

"I can't get a reading on what it is composed of..." Cassie replied dejectedly. "Edge, are we set to enter this thing?"

"Yes, the miners set up a platform with ladders so we don't fall." So saying, the Commander stepped through the wall and felt his foot land on the metal scaffold. Looking around, he saw a ring of green lights set up in the middle of the large chasm. A wall of black loomed beyond the ring and the miners were busy setting up more lights. He turned, and saw Jade and Cassie come through. "Glad you made it... what say we take a look around?" He smirked lightly as he set off down the ladder.

"Sounds fun," Jade remarked with a sarcastic wit as she followed her step-brother down.

Soon, all of the team and the miners stood in the circle.

"How far have you all explored?" The Commander asked the lead miner, Desmond.

"Not beyond this lit area sir, was ordered just to set up Mobile Command One, so we set up the lights and were just about to set up the consoles."

"Noted, continue as you were Desmond. We'll look around, keep in touch." Edge raised two of his fingers and pointed into the black.

At his command, everyone on the team activated their lights and set off into the dark. Mary, Hawkeye, and Lummy all turned on the lights that were mounted on their weapons. The beams of light cut through the darkness, revealing the empty space of the cavern. The floor and walls were all composed of the odd material, and the air was clean. The Commander felt a twinge of apprehension as he expected a place that had obviously been buried, and hidden for who-knows-how-long, and the air wasn't musty. There was no dust, no sign of age, no sign of... anything.

"Whatever made this, didn't leave any trace of themselves other than the structure..." Hawkeye stated as he scanned around them.

"It's so quite and... clean, aren't most buried things like this dirty?" Mary added as she sniffed the air, "Can't even smell any scents beyond ours Commander... this place could put our medical facilities to shame." Her light-brown/dark-yellow eyes followed the light that was mounted on her directed-energy, sub-machine gun.

"Agreed, I can-" Edge started but was interrupted by his sister.

"You all hear that?"

Everyone froze and went quiet, their ears twitched slightly as they scanned the area.

A low droning hum came from the distant dark and, upon going still, everyone could feel low vibrations reverberating through the ground.

Edge looked in the direction of the sound and aimed his pistol/light towards it, revealing a tall, haunting doorway. Focusing on the passage, Edge could barely make out a faint, red glow emanating from entrance. The Commander raised his hand and pointed two fingers at the door. "Everyone, tails this way, Hawk and I will take point, everyone else, keep your ears open and muzzles shut unless necessary."

"Copy that," Hawkeye responded and stepped forward with the Commander. He aimed his medium-range, sniper rifle as Edge withdrew his custom directed-energy assault rifle as they headed into the new passage.

The low droning slowly grew louder and louder as the red glow grew more bright and they all could it was flickering.

Turning a corner, Edge and Hawkeye saw the source of the glow and sound.

The source was at the top of a short staircase, hovering just above a circular platform composed of both metal, and the material the whole structure was composed of. The source was a large, red-and-black swirling globe with wisps of white circling closely around it. There was nothing else in the chamber but the large sphere.

Everyone stood at the entrance of the room, dumbfounded.

"The hell is this thing Commander?" Mary asked with wide eyes.

"...No clue, ask Cassie..."

The Scientist glanced at Edge, "I-I've never seen or heard of anything like this Edge..."

"Should we get closer Commander?" Lummy asked, sounding both curious and a bit intimidated.

The Commander contemplated the options before looking back at the team, "Let me report this real quick, no one takes a step closer okay?"

"Copy that," Lummy responded and everyone nodded in response.

Edge activated his comm, "Colonel, we've found something, but this is something even Cassie hasn't seen before... Some kind of giant energy sphere of some sort... yes... I see... copy that sir, out." Turning towards the team, he sighed lightly, "Orders are to secure the room and prep for the investigative team that Cassie will be heading. Mary, Hawk, you two guard here. Lummy, you and I will clear out the rest of the room, Jade, Huey, you and the Miners and sled pilot help unload Cassie's gear so she can start analyzing this thing before the sled goes to get the others, everyone clear?"

"Yes sir!" They all replied in unison and got to work on their tasks.

"Ugh..." the young pilot of the sled grunted as he (and Desmond) set down a trunk of gear. It had been about a half-hour since they had found the strange sight. "Dang, ya'll brought a bunch of toys eh?" His southern drawl lingered in the still air of the chamber. It was obvious the young pilot had more than enough personality and heart to him.

"Yes, and expensive ones," Cassie chimed as she started unpacking, and setting up, the gear. "So please be careful okay, Jason?"

He nodded, "Yes ma'am," taking a good look at the big sphere, he whistled. "Now that is one hell of a sight. Yer fancy tools gonna be able to tell what that thing is?"

"I... don't know, stick around and maybe I can show you how some work?" Cassie smiled slightly, obviously giddy about the discovery.

"Sounds interesting miss, yeah, think I'll take ya up on that once I get the higher-ups and others." He chuckled back as he started to head towards the exit.

Lummy, while setting down a piece of tech, set his hand on a particular section of the wall. In the dim light, it was difficult for him to see the rectangular outline carved on the wall.

A red flash of light came from the rectangle and, at the same time, a sound came from the huge sphere akin to a foghorn.

"The heck was that..." Huey stated with large eyes as all attention was given to the alien globe.

"What do we do Commander...?" Lummy asked as he drew his blade, just in case.

Before he could answer, the wind in the room went from dead still, to hurricane force in a second, the wind blowing towards the sphere. Everyone yelled as they desperately tried to find an escape.

But the wind was too strong.

Cassie and Jade were the ones closest to the sphere, and they let out terrified screams as the wind lifted them up and pulled them into the orb.

The Commander felt a strong pang of terror as it happened so fast, he barely had time to comprehend what in the hell was going on. He suddenly felt a similar fear to what he had felt in the midst of combat as things went so quickly from peaceful to a mind-breaking intensity.

There was nothing to hold onto, the equipment was being pulled in, along with the team. Hawkeye, Huey, Desmond, Brandon, and Lummy all quickly went. Mary and Jason were just beyond Edge, just a little further from him and the sphere. In desperation, Mary fired her wrist-mounted grapple hook into the wall.

The hook simply came back to her when it failed to grab a hold of anything and she yelled in fear as she was flung through the air.

Edge managed to glance up at the sphere, and he caught a glimpse of a tall, dark figure standing next to it. His panic, however, meant he had no time to register it as the large, red, black, and white sphere rapidly approached him.

Edge closed his eyes as he knew he was dead.

Everything went dark.

* * *

A surge of light, a throbbing pain in the head and a heavy chest suddenly came to the Commander as he woke up with a start. He gasped and coughed in surprise to find out he wasn't vaporized. He looked at his hand and his torso and felt his head. The only thing he could feel that might be alarming, was a slight cut on his head that might be bleeding a bit.

That, and the ground was a deep, rich crimson color and the sky, a pale-yellow. In front of him, a desert the color of blood and his team. Some awake, some unconscious, but they all were alive.

* * *

 _Heyo everyone, so, so, so sorry for the extreme delay on this and my other work. My job has been brutal on me, that and I've been dying to get back to this, but wasn't entirely sure how to start off the third book._

 _I thought about it a while, and thought the most interesting thing would to introduce Evilratchet96's original species, the Voporians. I think they're a cool and unique species and that adding a third (well, with the Ekons, a fourth) species into this mix would be fun and intriguing._

 _What do you all think? Let me know! And thanks to Evilratchet96 for letting me bring in his characters!_

 _Hope you enjoy! Stay tuned for more!_


	2. Chapter 1, A Whole New World

Chapter 1, A Whole New World

* * *

 _"The worst can happen, but the best remains" - Corrie ten Boom_

* * *

Edge groaned as he shakily stood up and stumbled over to the nearest person. Jade had just started to lift herself up onto her feet when The Commander approached her.

"Th-the heck just happened?" She said as she looked around. "What world is this? Doesn't look like any in our galaxy..."

"Because it's not." Cassie replied as she was standing and looking at the sky. "That device we found and activated accidentally was a one-way portal that just dumped us on a world inhabiting one of the most remote galaxies. Even with our tech, it would take us more than a few years to reach this place..."

The Commander's eyes grew wider the more his lead scientist spoke until he had to interrupt her. "One way... you said one way?" Edge and Jade both quickly looked all around and realized that there was no sign of the other-worldly portal.

"Th-the hell?!" Jade stammered and started to breathe heavily as panic began to strike She sat down on the crimson dirt and focused on slowing her breath.

Edge took a heavy sigh and felt his pulse race as he fought his own panic. "If there's a portal that leads here... theoretically there should be one that leads back home... right?"

The scientist shrugged and sat down next to Jade. "That makes the most logical sense."

"What makes the most sense?" Mary groaned and held her head as she and her brother both came to.

Both Edge and Jade sighed and helped them up. Within a few moments, Lummy awoke and soon the others as well. Those who could stand helped the others get up and Cassie gave her explanation as soon as everyone was steady.

Everyone else were just as shocked as Edge and his sister were. Seeing the group of friends and professionals starting to panic, Edge took a breath and stepped forward.

"Hey! Like Cassie just said, if there's a portal that leads from our home to here, there has to be one that leads back. We all have some supplies but it won't last for more than a few days. So we need to move and find food and water." He looked over at his lead scientist. "Is there any direction that looks more promising?"

"I'm not a navigator," Cassie remarked with a slightly sarcastic tone. "As best I can tell, no."

"That portal must lead to this spot on this world for a reason..." Brandon commented as he scooped up a handful of the red soil and pondered the situation.

"There's a forest about five miles to our... well, left..." Mary's brother, Nathan, stated as he peered through his rifle's scope. "The terrain looks rough but least we'd have some shade from this sun. Also means there's more than likely some water source."

"Good call Hawk," (Hawkeye was Nathan's nickname) Edge said as he picked up his pack, "Let's head that way."

Within a half-hour, the unit of soldiers and specialists had entered a small canyon that led towards their goal. The very jagged, rocky, hot, and dry terrain was exceptionally harsh. They were some of the best of the best on their world but the trek was nevertheless torturous. The gritty, crimson sand and dirt was light and drifted into the air easily, coating their clothing and fur. It also flew into their noses and throats, combining with the dry air, they quickly gained an intense thirst. Every member, even those with physical enhancements, was panting hard in the scorching, dusty, dry setting. When the terrain wasn't powdery dirt/sand; it was jagged, cracked, uneven rock which forced them to account for each step.

Shortly after passing a small cave in the aforementioned canyon, Cassie waved her arm, signaling for everyone to stop as she ran up to Edge. She held up her LMS (Life-signs and Motion Sensor) display, pointing to a large white dot on the screen.

The Commander's eyes went wide, "H-how big is it saying?"

"Gigantic, and it's coming this direction."

"There!" Jade turned and pointed back at the cave, "We need cover, does your LMS detect anything in there?"

Cassie glanced at the screen before shaking her head.

"Move everyone, now!" Edge barked and the crew scrambled to the cover of the small cavern.

Despite it being a relatively small cavern, everyone in the crew managed to fit and tentatively looked out of the tunnel. Cassie, Jade and Jason all looked at the screen of the LMS as the large dot got closer and closer to the canyon.

A very quick series of deep rumbles were felt through the ground. They came in rapid bursts of four and grew deeper and louder the closer the dot came. Within minutes, the heavy footfalls came from right outside of the cavern. Four, dark-grey-furred, canine-like paws, the size of pillars, stepped into view as very loud panting came from the gigantic animal. The panting was very quickly followed by loud sniffing as the huge animal had picked up a scent it had never smelled before.

A giant wolf's head came into view as it lowered it's nose to the ground. The massive wolf-like creature sniffed at the area they all had once occupied and started to follow their scents.

The sight of such a large, carnivorous made everyone's primal fear kick in. Their hearts raced, adrenaline levels spiked, their lungs fought for more breath, and they heard, smelled, and saw everything that they could. It took every discipline from their training and professional work to hold back the rush of anxiety and fear.

The giant-wolf's nose started to head in towards the cave, and the humid, rank breath of the wild beast made most feel uneasy, if not outright sick. Edge held out his sidearm in a desperate fashion as everyone else also held their firearms at the ready. The panic surging through their systems reached it's peak, the sickening smell of the animal's breath wasn't near as nauseating as the feeling of impending doom that sat heavy in their guts.

A loud yelp rang out from the animal as it was forcefully hit by something and it retreated from the cave and snarled for a moment. That is, until it was struck again and loud thuds rang out as the giant animal fled.

Confused and still in the flight-or-fight mode, Edge and his teams just stood at the ready to see what was nearby.

A tall, humanoid figure approached the entrance of the cave. "Are you all fine?" A deep, smooth, masculine voice rang out as he stepped closer and everyone could see the figure.

He was tall, around 6' 10" and was covered in a smooth, short, black fur that thinned slightly on his face and around his stomach. He had a bit of a muzzle that bore a similarity to the the crew's own species. Though, his muzzle partially blended into a more rounded jaw. His ears were long, pointed and tended to stick straight-up, looking similar to horns. They were triangular in shape and had silver stripes; with the tips being a dark-gold color. Some shoulder-length hair partly covered his head and was rather raggedy. The edges/tips of his hair had a dark-gold color and, a lone white streak, ran down the right side of his head-fur. His silver-colored eyes shimmered as his cat-like pupils adjusted to the darkness of the cave. His nose moved as he caught the crew's scent and it was also akin to a Voporian's in shape but slightly smaller in proportion to his overall size. The strange figure was also rather muscular, and had just the slightest bit of pudge on his stomach. The figure's tail swept around curiously and was as long as he was tall; it was covered in medium-length, black fur with a silver swirl pattern all over.

"Who or what are you? What was that? And where are we?!" Edge barked and kept his firearm up, as did everyone else.

The stranger held his hands up, "You must be new to this place. If that's true, then you just found one of the few around here who means you no harm. I'm Miach, I've been around a while. I can explain more, but that Hunter that ran off will be back with at least five others bigger than it so I don't have time for all your questions here. Come with me, or be a meal for a pack of Hunters, that's your choice right now." He lowered his arms and nodded to them, "What'll it be?"

Looking back at his crew, Edge sighed and lowered his gun, having no choice but to listen. "Show us the way... Miach."

* * *

 _Hey everyone, so, so, so sorry for such an incredibly long delay. Been having a ton of family drama and work stress that didn't exist when I wrote the prologue to Bide. I had full intention of writing the first chapter shortly after the prologue but then all that junk came up. I won't give too much detail, but I do feel I owe an explanation for the insanely long delay._

 _Firstly, my work has increased in intensity and has required a lot more mental focus and energy than it previously has and a lot more than the job I had before when I wrote Ravage and Alter. I'm working with older machines and some rather dangerous acids and chemicals so I have to give more attention to it. I deal with stuff like Aqua Regia and highly-concentrated Hydrofleuoric Acid (both are very nasty chemicals/compounds). I had been in training for a while on the machines that use such chemicals and I just finished it so work should be a bit easier._

 _Secondly, my sister has been pulling some very nasty, manipulative and selfish acts for a long time and has been involved in relations that my parents have repeatedly made clear that they didn't approve of. By that, I mean that she's been pursuing guys around the same age as our dad... and while that's very off-putting to me and my parents, it's not the main reason we've had issues with her. It's the fact that she's had a few of these relations behind my parent's backs while living in their home, knowing full well they didn't approve. She's blatantly lied and manipulated us and her friends to pursue these relationships. I'm talking about spying on my parent's phones and lying about why she uses a car and other such things. With her latest relationship, she flew up to this guy who lives quite a distance away, and she's barely known him for a month, online and we didn't find out about it until a short time before she left. This kind of stuff had been going on for over five years and my parents kicked her out of the house when she came back. I'm only giving this much away because she's posted about this "relationship" online now and keeps trying to stir up drama on social media with my mom. Once she moved out, the stress levels went down a lot._

 _All that to say, my writing has become a lot easier so I'll do my best to be more consistent in it._

 _There's a lot more to both points but I don't wanna give too much more. If you have questions or anything, PM me._

 _Anyways, what do you think of this first chapter? Thoughts? Concerns? Prediction? let me know!_


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